Eye of the Dawn
by EverlastingBliss
Summary: The pain of being left behind, of being the only ones left alive in their teams, makes the shinobi wonder if they are better off dead than having this awful,empty hole in their hearts. Focuses on Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and memoirs of their teams.
1. Team Sandaime

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Team Sandaime

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Her teacher was the longest surviving Hokage, mastering hundreds of jutsu. He was her grandfather's best student, Konoha's most knowledgeable shinobi.

_They_ were Konoha's most powerful team, marking the beginning of a new era. Their reputation is known throughout the shinobi world.

Sanin.

Sanin means three.

Tsunade, Jiraiya, Orochimaru.

Or they were supposed to be.

The four of them were supposed to be master and students, not enemies fighting each other to death.

A student is not supposed to kill his teacher.

Like Orochimaru.

A team-mate is not supposed to fight someone he had grown up with, had loved like a brother.

Jiraiya did.

_She_ was the jewel of her family, a princess.

She was not supposed to be forced to watch her team being ripped apart.

Ripped apart, just for the sake of power.

Now, as Hokage, she must protect everyone in the village. The fate of Konoha rests on her shoulders, as she has to appease to the demands of both the villagers and the Council, masking her emotions in doing so.

Protect Konoha.

Protect Naruto.

Protect, by giving up on the last member of her team.

Yet, she still has to face the accusations of a blonde ninja for just letting Jiraiya die.

She did not attempt to defend herself, for it is the truth.

What is left when everyday you are tormented by guilt of being alive when everyone else on your team is not?

A hole in your heart, already fractured by age.

A once-beautiful face, now pale and gaunt.

A restless and tormented soul.

Death may have come as a blessing for ninja, when everything important to them were taken away.

Yet she must live.

For the future of Konoha.

For the legacy of the Fourth Hokage.

For all those who sacrificed.

So.

Outside her office, just for this moment, she lets her mask drop.

Just for this moment.

Drops of water glittered in the twilight as they fell.

* * *

_"Hi," a white-haired boy smiled. "My name is Jiraiya, you can send me a love letter later."_

_"Che. You wish," she retorted as she kicked him._

_"OW!"_

_Orochimaru looked away. "Idiots," he muttered._

_"Hey," Sarutobi intercepted. "This is just the first day. Be nice to each other."_

_His students ignored him._

_Sighing, he put a head on his forehead._I knew nothing well would come from teaching three six-year-olds, _he thought._

_"Sensei," Jiraiya looked at him innocently, head tilted at an angle. "You face is green."_

_"Haha, very funny Jiraiya," his teacher sniffed. He rummaged in his pouch and drew out two bells._

_"Let us start," he told them seriously. "And I know which one of you will fail."_

_"Him?" Jiraiya pointed to Orochimaru hopefully._

_"**You**, you idiot," Orochimaru told him flatly. His yellow eyes glared._

_"Don't call me an idiot!" Jiraiya yelled back. "I am going to beat you. Then Tsunade will go out with me!!"_

* * *

"Tsunade-sama," a voice said behind her, interrupting her memories.

"What is it now, Shizune?" she turned around, face composed once more.

"Come," her assistant replied, and then turned back the way she had come.

_More paperwork_, she sighed.

* * *

_"Keep trying, bastard," the young Tsunade whispered dangerously as she punched Jiraiya in the face, sending him flying._

_Sweeping her hair back with one hand, she smiled._

* * *

_"Damn,_" she cursed. "_Damn it all_."

She clasped her hands under her chin and stared at the ceiling of her office.

Shizune closed the door quietly, leaving the Hokage alone.

There will be a lot of sake consumption tonight.

* * *

Damn those who think a shinobi's life is all fun and glory. Damn those who envied her for her power.

Had she had the choice, she would have preferred the life of a civilian.

Just to be spared from this sense of loneliness, of being left behind.

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**Next chapter- Team Jiraiya.**

Jiraiya reflect on the times he had spent with his students.

Thank you for reading. Comments welcome.


	2. Team Jiraiya

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_Team Jiraiya_

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He was a failure.

So much for being a Sanin.

Not only did he let his teacher die and watch his friend sink into the darkness, but also failed to protect his students.

Children are supposed to grow up as children.

When he met them, they were unstained and uncoloured by the ways of the shinobi world.

One boy was solemn and dignified.

The girl was serious but kind.

The other boy, with his golden hair and deep-blue eyes, was determined and courageous.

They were an interesting trio.

He had called them "brats" since the first day they met.

They retaliated with "perverted sensei."

When they left him, they struggled to hold on to their last remains of humanity, faded by having watched hundred die at their hands, which were tainted with blood.

He was supposed to shield them from the eyes of the Konoha Council, who view shinobi as no more than killing machines.

He observed as one by one they left for missions, coming back with their eyes haunted.

He watched as year by year they grew up, learning to lock away their emotions.

They were indeed talented.

Unfortunately, he was not the only one who noticed.

One after another, Konoha sent them off as perfect tools to expand its power, using them to strike fear into other villages.

Konoha drew pride from his students, the successors to the legendary Sanin.

The villagers hailed them as heroes.

Their comrades saw them with respect.

Only he, only Jiraiya would know how they cried when alone, tormented by having to kill women and children.

Only he would know how they threw up after each massacre, marked in their bingo books with blood.

Only he, as their teacher, could offer those gentle words of assurance.

He had grown attached to them, and saw them as his own children.

He watched, proudly, as one ascended to jounin, one to Anbu, and the final one to Hokage.

Even so, they kept their promise to meet once a month, to fight for the bells as they had done since their genin days.

They smiled like children again when he ruffled their hair fondly, finally admitting defeat at the hands of his "brats."

The monthly routine continued, even when one by one they died off.

The blonde man, hardly more than an adolescent, was first.

His two team-mates buried their emotions and turned their hearts to stone, masking their distress by taking on countless assassinations.

Then they followed his path.

They were young, vigorous, and had their entire lives ahead of them.

They were not supposed to die in their prime, in their twenties.

Jiraiya punched the larch tree.

He still comes here every month, though no one would be waiting for him.

Dying leaves landed gently on the white hair, made whiter by years of service in the shinobi world.

* * *

_"Senseiiiii," his students looked at him innocently, though innocent was hardly the word._

_He knew they were up to something._

_"Just spit it out," he told them shortly. He was still pouting over the fact that Tsunade caught him peeking._

_Again._

_"You remember a few years ago, when we first did the bell test?" the blonde teenager asked._

Crap.

_"Uh…no,"_

_Of course Jiraiya remembered, not that he wanted to._

_"Of course you do, sensei," the girl spoke up._

Damn. Observant as ever.

_"We won the bet and were supposed to tie you to the post, but you escaped," the other boy summarized briefly. He looked at his teacher, who was sweating. "Do you remember now?"_

_"Hehehe," Jiraiya laughed nervously. "You three might have been able to take the bells, but there is no way you can beat me yet, even though you are no longer genin. Go ahead and try to tie me to the post,"_

_Bad move._

_His students smirked._

_"Oh, we won't be the ones doing it, sensei," Minato said mischievously._

_"We asked Tsunade and Orochimaru-sensei to do it for us, provided that Mikazuki shows him her Sharingan later."_

_The girl sighed. "You just had to sign me up, didn't you, Minato?"_

_He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "He _**is**_ your Anbu captain, deal with it."_

_"Sensei!!" their team-mate's voice distracted them. Both of them whirled around._

_"Don't you dare escape this time!!"_

_Too late._

_Jiraiya was gone._

* * *

_"Whew, close call," Jiraiya panted._

_"Riiight," a voice made him look up. His female student sat on a branch, looking down at him with swirling red eyes. "Chakra tracking, easy," she said simply._

_Minato suddenly appeared beside her, leaning on the trunk in a relaxed position with his arms folded over his chest._

_"Tsunade and Orochimaru-sensei," he called. "He is all yours."_

_Let us just say that five people had fun._

_One didn't._

_After all, this is the **second** time he got tied to the post._

_"Damn you brats!" he yelled after his students, who left laughing._

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A/N: Fast little one-shots written within half an hour as a distraction from my other story. I won't be surprised if this gets flamed.

One more chapter to go. :) Thanks for reading.

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	3. Team Yondaime

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Team Yondaime

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He was the youngest genin in the history of Konoha.

The son of the White Fang.

The prodigy.

He never doubted his believes and values, especially after the death of his father.

**A ninja must obey rules, and put the welfare of the village before everything else.**

Thus, he was taken back when a fourteen-year-old was assigned to be his teacher.

* * *

_"So, **you** are already chunin," Minato stated flatly, sizing up his charge and finding him barely up to his waist._

_"They think you are too young to be a chunin and me too inexperienced to be in charge of an entire team. So, I guess we are stuck together," a mournful tone coloured Minato's voice._

_Kakashi raised his eyebrows. _

_"I don't think you will be a good teacher, Namikaze-kun," he said bluntly, arms folded. "Honestly, what kind of jounin walks straight into a **tree**?"_

_"I was reading," Minato protested._ _**Why am I feeling as if I am the student**? he thought, scratching his head._

_"Whatever," Kakashi said as he walked to the door. "Are you going to spar with me or not?"_

_**Why that little –**__ Minato gave a sigh of exasperation as he followed his student, who was apparently infected by Superiority Complex Syndrome. _

_Perhaps a little Sharingan genjutsu would help..._

_Minato felt his pockets. He has just enough money to bribe Mikazuki..._

_"If you are not going to call me 'sensei,'" he said, snapping out of his thoughts and taking big strides to catch up. He tried to re-establish his authority. "At least call me 'senpai.'"_

_"No," was the flat reply._

_Oh yes, Kakashi was going to give his new teacher a hard time. _

_Maybe then, Konoha will replace him with a more experienced, and less **clueless **jounin._

* * *

Eventually, however, he came to respect Minato for his deadly power in battle and his ability to recover psychologically from each massacre.

Kakashi would always see him smiling as they trained, even if Minato had killed only moments before.

To Kakashi, Minato was a perfect shinobi.

A perfect tool.

He failed to realize sooner that there is a hidden side to everyone, and his teacher was no exception.

He failed to comprehend immediately that his teacher did not kill due to lack of emotions, but out of love for his friends, for his village.

Even so, Kakashi enjoyed the daily routine of training with Minato, the only man Kakashi has revered since his father's death.

But, life just has to take that away.

Nothing was ever the same again when Konoha decided to expand their little group by adding two new members...

* * *

_"I hate you," Obito said to him the first day they met. "Because of your existence, my mother never spoke of me as an ideal son."_

_Kakashi looked at him unblinkingly, taking in his orange goggles, his lopsided headband, and his family crest._

_"And you are?"_

_Proudly, Obito puffed out his chest. _

_"I am from the proud Uchiha clan," he said, jabbing a finger into Kakashi's face. "And I will surpass you! Once I awaken the Sharingan, of course." He added the last part as an afterthought._

_Annoyed, Kakashi pushed the offending hand away from his face._

_"We will see," he said simply._

* * *

He must admit that he did not enjoy being part of a complete genin team. He missed the days when it was just him and Minato, who spent all his energy whole-heartedly on him.

Obito had disappointed him deeply. Kakashi had expected more from a member of the prestigious Uchiha clan.

An embarassement to the Uchiha clan, Obito was often compared to Kakashi by his family.

No wonder he hates him.

Not that Kakashi cares.

* * *

Rin was, well, Rin.

Kakashi enjoyed her obedience and placidity, but was frustrated by her lack of combat skills.

"Girls are weak," he once made the mistake of muttering his thoughts out loud while training with two jounin, with whom he will work with during their next mission.

Sadly, they did not let the remark go unnoticed.

While Mikazuki stared unbelievingly at his _stupidity_, which was shown by saying something like that in the presence of two_ kunoichi_, Kushina sent Kakashi home with two lumps on his head.

* * *

Years later, he would often stare at the picture frame and regret the times he had wasted by quarreling with Obito, by yelling at Rin, and by complaining to Minato about Kushina.

* * *

Sometimes, he blamed himself for their deaths.

Other times, he blamed his teammates for leaving him.

"You are the Fourth Hokage, God dammit!" he would say as he stares at the picture on his bedside table. "You are not supposed to die from fighting a lump of chakra."

The man would always stare back, smiling.

Getting no response, Kakashi would turn to the next person in the picture.

"Ditcher," he would say bitterly. "Idiot."

Many a night he would spend sleepless, staring at the picture and waiting listlessly for dawn.

* * *

_"Please, Minato-sensei!" the familiar voice made Kakashi stop short. Quickly, he suppressed his charka and climbed silently up a tree. Pushing apart the leaves, he found Obito and Rin speaking to their teacher._

_Obito, oblivious to the presence of Kakashi, continued._

_"You have to help us!!"_

_Minato shook his head. "It is an invasion of privacy," he said sternly._

_The hairs on his neck suddenly stood on end. **Kakashi is getting better and better at stealth**…he thought._

_"But we want to know if Kakashi has buck teeth!!" Rin spoke up._

_Her teacher stared at her disbelievingly. "Buck teeth?"_

_"Or huge, fat lips," Obito added in._

_Minato patted his two student on the head as he bursted out laughing. "Whoever gave you that idea?" he asked them, wiping tears away from his eyes. "I can assure you right now. Kakashi looks **normal**."_

_"Define **normal**," Obito argued stubbornly. "Believe me, silver hair at the age of ten is **not normal**."_

_"Yeah, yeah," his teacher said distractedly, spotting an eighteen-year-old kunoichi walking towards them, red hair gleaming in the sun. "Meet me here later. Whatever you do, don't get Kakashi mad, got it? I am the one who will have to deal with the aftermath later."_

_Waving a hand, he left them, strolling towards the newcomer._

_"I **swear**, sensei!" Obito yelled at the retreating figure. "If you don't help us, Rin and I will be light-bulbs on your every date with Kushina-san!!"_

_"Oh, so now you are stooping down to blackmailing. Impressive," Kakashi said sarcastically as he dropped down from the tree behind them, landing in a cat-like stance and making Obito and Rin jump. "What was it about my having buck teeth?"_

_Gulp._

_"Uhh…let me explain," Obito laughed nervously as Kakashi advanced towards him…_

* * *

"Light-bulb, indeed," Kakashi smiled to himself as he watched Naruto and Sakura lunge at each other. "How come I never thought of that to blackmail sensei?"

Watching as Sakura toppled a tree when attacking Naruto, he held up his arm, and his two students paused.

"Sakura, you need to be more subtle in your attacks," he told her. "You don't want to let your enemy's reinforcements know where you are. Naruto, you need more ferocity, and—" he tapped Naruto's temple. "Brains. A ninja must look underneath the underneath, I thought I have told you so many times already. You never learn."

"Pfft. You sound like Sasuke," Naruto pouted.

There was an awkward silence between them as Naruto's words sank in.

Realizing what he had said, Naruto put his head down on his hands, depressed.

_So it has begun_, Kakashi thought, observing the abrupt change in their moods. _The pain of past generations will be eventually inherited by the future. I wonder, which member of Team Kakashi will be the last one left?_

He turned his head in the direction of the village. He could make out the faint outline of the faces on the Hokage Mountain.

Or maybe.

All of them will live.

He could only hope that he won't be the last one, again.

THE END

A/N: I would like to thank all my reviewers. Thank you for your support. XD Best of luck in the future.

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